4 days to go for verification deadline, EC yet to check docus of over 95L voters

Kolkata: The EC has so far verified documents of approximately 55 lakh electors who submitted them during the SIR hearings, a senior commission official said on Tuesday. With only 4 days left, as per the EC's schedule, to verify all hearing documents on or before Feb 7, the slow pace has cast doubts on completion of the entire SIR process on time. The official, however, claimed that everything was progressing well and that the deadline would be met."Already, the hearing process is over in at least 100 Assembly constituencies. All documents will be uploaded and verified within deadline. The speed of work will gain momentum in next few days. We don't think there is any need to extend the deadline," he said. Publication of final electoral rolls is scheduled on Feb 14, which is only 11 days away.
According to EC data, a little over 1.5 crore received hearing notices. Of them, approximately 31 lakh were unmapped, i.e., the category of voters who are not linked with Bengal's 2002 SIR. The remaining 1.2 crore voters, whose enumeration forms were found with logical discrepancies, were also called in for hearings."Till Tuesday, a little over 1.2 crore hearings were completed. Out of 1.2 crore hearings, documents of close to 95 lakh persons were uploaded. The verification of documents was done for 55 lakh," the official stated, adding that everybody cooperated to complete the entire exercise within the deadline.According to EC sources, the MEA verified all the passports submitted during the hearings last week. However, the passports which were impounded in the last 3 years won't be verified, sources added. Verification of SC/ST/OBC certificates is also not a problem, a commission official said.The electors, whose names will go missing in the final electoral rolls even after attending hearings and submitting necessary documents, can apply to the concerned DM/DEO within 15 days from the publication of the final voter list. "After getting the applications, the DM/DEO will call them for a hearing. Applications can also be made to the CEO," another EC official said.Meanwhile, Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal wrote a letter to the chief secretary to ensure necessary and proper infrastructure in all polling booths.West Bengal now has 80,681 booths, which will increase by about 14,000. The exercise of rationalisation of polling booths is scheduled to be completed by Feb 7.